LARYNGECTOMEE-- maybe you have heard the word, maybe not. Let me tell you about it.

You read so much about cancer and smoking, breast cancer, lung cancer, cervical, stomach, prostate and testicle cancers, but nothing about neck cancer (voice box) removal.

It is 100 per cent smoking.

Then the voice box is removed and so there is no other way to be rid of it. You have no speech at all and your airway is moved to a stoma in your neck. It is the only place you can breathe from. If water went into it you could drown. You cannot smell gas or anything.

There is so much to know about being a laryngectomee that I am not qualified to know, but if you would like to know more about it the speech therapist from Blackburn Royal Infirmary and the surgeon would discuss it with you.

I do feel something should be said about it and I am hoping to write to some magazines.

M LYONS, Lammack, Blackburn.